2941
How has mathematics gotten so abstract?
What's the meaning of "numbers" and "arithmetic operations"? We consult Georg Cantor's turtles and look at Giuseppe Peano's code.
Topics /
Science & Space
The most popular blog posts about science & space on Hacker News. 4,455 posts.
2942
There is no nanotech, stop talking about it and start laughing at it
I used to work next to the center for nanotechnology. The first indication I had that there was something wrong with the discipline of “nanotechnology” is I noticed that the people who …
2943
Can SpaceX land a rocket with 1/2 cm accuracy?
No. But they don’t need to. In preparation for the 5th test flight of Starship, SpaceX announced that they would try to catch the booster using “Mechazilla’s chopsticks.” Later du…
2944
Why high fructose corn syrup replaced sugar in US
Once in a while I come across an animated debate on health benefits of sugar vs. high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). It is enzymatically produced mixture of glucose and fructose that approximately matches the chemical composition of sucrose, aka sugar. It is not this debate that is my concern; rather,…
2945
Nuclear Conversion for Starship
A blog dedicated to helping Science Fiction authors create and discuss worlds where a realistic setting can still serve the fiction.
2946
Alien intelligence and the concept of technology
Learn how alien intelligence connects to human intelligence through science and technology using the Principle of Computational Equivalence, the ruliad, rulial space, tiny spacecraft and the Wolfram Language.
2947
How Deep Can Humans Go?
Up until the late 1960s, physiologists believed that the maximum depth a person could descend to was determined by the depth at which their total lung capacity (TLC) was compressed to the same volume as their residual volume (RV) which is the smallest lung volume a person can breathe to. The TLC was predicted to be…
2948
A seventh-grader student found a beautiful proof to Thales' Theorem (2002)
A useful theorem attributed to the probably first mathematician ever, Thales of Miletus (ca. 624 BC-ca. 546 BC) is one of most elementary and intuitive ever stated.
2949
In kids, EEG monitoring of consciousness safely reduces anesthetic use
Using EEG readings of brain waves to monitor unconsciousness, an anesthesiologist can significantly reduce the amount of the anesthesia administered to safely induce and sustain the anesthetized state of children undergoing surgery.
2950
A possible link between childhood trauma and Alzheimer disease
Two recent articles, one about China and the other from Europe, are pointing at a link between childhood trauma and Alzheimer disease. The first
2951
Researchers have discovered magnetic monopole quasi-particles
Researchers have discovered magnetic monopoles – isolated magnetic charges – in a material closely related to rust, a result that could be used to power greener and faster computing technologies.
2952
2953
On Norbert Blum’s claimed proof that P does not equal NP
Edited 8/16 to correct attributions to Alon and Boppana and to Tardos, thanks to an anonymous commenter for the correction Yesterday, Norbert Blum posted a preprint with a claimed proof that $latex…
2954
Robot-assisted surgery associated with longer operating times, higher cost
A Stanford study of nearly 24,000 patients with kidney cancer concluded that robot-assisted laparoscopic surgeries are associated with increases in operating times and cost compared with conventional laparoscopic surgeries.
2955
2956
Why We Sleep: A Tale of Institutional Failure
In our previous installment of this podcast, we learned from independent researcher Alexey Guzey that famed sleep researcher Matthew Walker seems to have committed research misconduct in his bestselling book, Why We Sleep. Walker is a University of California professor, Google researcher, and Ted talk star, and his…
2957
Telomere extension turns back aging clock in cultured human cells, study finds
Researchers delivered a modified RNA that encodes a telomere-extending protein to cultured human cells. Cell proliferation capacity was dramatically increased, yielding large numbers of cells for study.
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Effects on the lips of horn players seated too close to the timpani (2014)
Timpani-horn interactions:
2960
How We Knew Space Was a Vacuum (2021)
Question: At what point during the history of science did we discover outer space was a vacuum? I’m pretty sure it was before we actually went there, but when did we know for certain? — MC, Algoma, WI
2961
Scientists discover mechanism of hearing
Discovery made possible by more than 60 million worms and state-of-the-art imaging accessible only at OHSU, two other national cryoEM centers in the U.S.
2962
The Grid That Doubles the Strength of the Ground
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] The Port of Long Beach in Southern California is the second-busiest container seaport in the United States, a major gateway for goods flowing to and from the west coast. Together with its next door neighbor, the Port of Los Ange
2963
Decomposing a Factorial into Large Factors
I’ve just uploaded to the arXiv the paper “Decomposing a factorial into large factors”. This paper studies the quantity $latex {t(N)}&fg=000000$, defined as the largest quanti…
2964
Scientists discover hidden patterns of brain activity
In a collaboration led by EPFL’s Blue Brain, scientists discover patterns of brain activity – never before observed – with the help of mathematics, providing insight into how neurons collectively process information.
2965
Tutorial on Deep Learning
Lecture 1: Tutorial on Deep Learning I Lecture 2: Tutorial on Deep Learning II Lecture 3: Tutorial on Deep Learning III Lecture 4: Tutorial on Deep Learning IV
2966
Researchers chart path to drastically lower administrative costs of health care
A new analysis by Stanford researchers suggests the health care industry can reap many of the economic benefits of a "Medicare for All" program through incremental changes to the private health care market.
2967
The False Promise of Chomskyism
Important Update (March 10): On deeper reflection, I probably don’t need to spend emotional energy refuting people like Chomsky, who believe that Large Language Models are just a laughable fa…
2968
A pro-science, pro-progress, techno-optimistic health textbook from 1929
"Science and The Way to Health" by Andress and Brown
2969
Turing's topological proof that every written alphabet is finite (2010)
Recently one of my colleagues was reading Alan Turing’s groundbreaking 1936 article “On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem.” This is the article in…
2970
Why I have resigned from the Royal Society
The Royal Society is a venerable institution founded in 1660, whose original members included such eminent men as Christopher Wren, Robert H...